The television and mobile worlds are not interconnected. A user may observe something of interest on a screen, such as a TV, and may require further information. As an example, the user may see, for example, a music video on TV and want, e.g., more information about the group such as disco graphical information or maybe book some tickets for a concert. Maybe the only further information given is a reference, such as a web address, presented on the screen.
At present, however, the only option the user is given in the exemplary scenario above, is to manually enter the web address into the user's portable electronic device, such as a mobile phone. This is cumbersome, unnecessary time consuming, and may easily render misspellings, general frustration and user dissatisfaction. If the information, such as a web address, is displayed for too short time, the user may not have time to enter the web address and if the information is not easy to commit memory, the user may forget it before succeeding in acquiring the information.
Attempts to resolve this problem may be to apply any of the optical encoding systems used for printed products, such as paper products, on a screen. Some examples of such optical encoding may be a bar code or similar encoding system. Today there exist several ways to visually transfer information optically from a printed media. A common method is to detect a static complex image, a two-dimensional bar code, like EAN 13, a Shot Code, a dot based pattern code etc. This technique is however best suited for printed surfaces, and not for the displays of electronic devices such as CRT's or LCD's, etc.
It is difficult to detect such bar codes on a digital screen due to the low resolution of digital screens compared to that of printed paper. The resolution of printed media typically may be approximately 300 dpi, in contrast to the resolution of a screen, which typically may be limited to approximately 72 dpi. To use static complex images, like bar codes, may work with a high definition LCD screen, but still several attempts may be needed before succeeding, and the information is strictly size limited.
Another possible method may be to transfer a stream of simple detectable high contrast images/bars on the screen like Timex® does with their Data Link to transfer content to a watch. However, it may be experienced as disturbing and even painful for the eyes to watch for most people, not to mention the risk of triggering epileptic seizures.
Another possible solution to the addressed problem may be to let a portable electronic device comprise a camera. Such portable electronic device including a camera may be used for capturing information from another electronic device such as a TV screen. One way of capturing information on the screen, such as a web address, could be to snap a photograph of the screen and use a program for letter recognition to analyze the captured image comprising the desired piece of information. However, such a solution may presuppose e.g. that the desired information text is displayed alone, without disturbance from other texts or flashing images. Also, the camera probably will have to be within a certain range from the screen with the displayed text. Even if the enumerated problems may be solved, the risk of misinterpretation is likely to be considerable.
Thus there is a need for a robust and reliable method of transferring information from one electronic device, such as a screen, to another electronic device, such as a portable electronic device.